The Old Neighborhood Read Free Page B

suppose we are.
(Pause)
Isn’t everybody?
    (Pause)
    BOBBY : You remember the Sleepy Time Motel?
    JOEY : Yes.
    BOBBY : Is it still there?
    JOEY : Yes, it is.
    BOBBY : You remember when Joan Carpenter threw up?
    JOEY : Yes.
    BOBBY : Those girls.
(Pause)
    JOEY : Yeah, I remember …
    BOBBY :
(Pause)
Joan … Deeny.
    JOEY : Deeny. I see her now and then. She works at Fields.
    BOBBY : She does?
    JOEY : She got divorced.
    BOBBY : I didn’t even know that she was married.
    JOEY : She got married million years ago.
    BOBBY : When did she get divorced?
    JOEY : Not too long, maybe a year ago. Two years.
    BOBBY : And how is she?
    JOEY : Yeah. She’s fine.
    BOBBY : Did she get fat?
    JOEY : No.
(Pause)
She’s selling cosmetics on the first floor.
    BOBBY : She is?
    JOEY : Yeah.
    BOBBY : She ever ask about me?
    JOEY : Yeah.
    BOBBY : What does she say?
    JOEY : How were you.
    BOBBY : What did you tell her?
    JOEY : That you’re fine.
(Pause)
    BOBBY : She works at the place downtown or on Michigan?
    JOEY : Michigan.
    BOBBY : Cosmetics.
    JOEY : Yeah.
    BOBBY : What does she look like?
    JOEY : She looks the same.
    BOBBY : She does?
    JOEY : Yeah. I’m struck by that sometimes. I mean you look the same to me.
    BOBBY : Isn’t that funny, ’cause you look the same to me.
    JOEY : You think that’s funny?
    BOBBY : Yeah.
    JOEY : I think it’s funny, too. I wish I had a cigarette.
    BOBBY : Yes. I do, too.
(Beat)
    JOEY : You wanna go get some?
    BOBBY : I almost do, but I shouldn’t.
    JOEY : No, I shouldn’t either.
(Pause)
Isn’t that something?
    BOBBY : Yes. It is, Joe.
    JOEY : Isn’t that something?
    BOBBY : It’s one for the books.
    END

J OLLY

CHARACTERS
 
 
 
 
 
JOLLY
 
a woman in her thirties or forties
 
BOB
 
her brother
 
CARL
 
her husband
    SCENE
    Jolly’s home

Evening
, JOLLY, BOB ,
and
CARL .
    JOLLY : … and he said, “I disapprove of you.” “Of what?” I said. “Of, well, I don’t know if I want to go into it …” “Of something I’ve done …?” I said, “Yes.” “To you?” “No.” “To
whom?
” I said. He said he would much rather not take it up. “Well, I wish you
would
take it up,” I said, “because it’s important to me.” “It’s the way,” he said. “It’s the way that you are with your children.”
    BOB :
(Pause) What? (Pause)
    JOLLY : “It’s the way that you are with your children.”
    BOB : Oh, Lord …
    JOLLY : I …
    BOB : … how long can this go …
    JOLLY : I …
    BOB : … how long can this go
on?
    JOLLY : I wanted to, you know, I stayed on the pho—
    BOB : How long can this go on?
Wait a
minute.
Wait
a minute: You should call all …
    JOLLY : … I know …
    BOB : … you should cease …
    JOLLY : … I know.
    BOB : … all
meetings, dialogue …
    JOLLY : … but the children …
    BOB : You should never … listen to me, Jolly:
    JOLLY : I’m …
    BOB : You sh—
    JOLLY : Yes, I know.
    BOB : You should take an oath never to
talk
to,
meet
with …
    JOLLY : … but the children …
    BOB : And the children most especially. How can this, arewe going to expose another generation to this … this …
    JOLLY : And the thing of it is, is …
    BOB : He said
what? What
did he say …?
    JOLLY : He …
    BOB : He didn’t like the way you raise your children …
    JOLLY : … he said that he’d been in
therapy …
    BOB : … hu.
    JOLLY : … and he’d, he’d come to … 
what
was it …?
    CARL : “See.”
    JOLLY : … he was a different
man
. From the man we knew.
    CARL : He’d come to “realize” that he had “changed.”
    JOLLY : … to realize that he had changed, yes, and the things which, in a prior life, he might have “suppressed” …
    BOB : … that’s their way. That’s their way. That’s theirswinish, selfish,
goddam
them. What
treachery
have they not done, in the name of …
    JOLLY : … I know …
    BOB : … of “honesty.” God
damn
them. And always “telling” us we …
    JOLLY